For a long time i've been wondering whether to upgrade my soundcard, its about the only thing i've not done in this build. I've noticed over time that if im converting video or sometimes playing games that the audio clips on and off for a second for a while, so i think the time is now. I mainly play games, music and do a little media stuff but would like to do some music edititing again sometime, i was givin a Roland keyboard a while back so it could be usefull. A few people i know who do music stuff tell me to avoid Creative and the one i've found that sounds pretty good is the Asus Xonar D2 7.1 Ultra Fidelity card www.scan.co.uk/products/asus-xonar-d2-ultra-fidelity-71-pci-sound-card I have around £100 so i thought this would suit my needs and is bang on my price range.
Absolutely avoid creative. Even though XFI has music mode...it's junk. All it did was hard crash my PC 40% of the time when changing mode. I've been using Auzentech X-Meridian 2G for a number of years and the drivers are lightweight, install in seconds and stable. Problem for some is no PCIe version. I've read mixed things about Asus but I'd sooner try them than creative. Issue I used to read about the xonar was latency for music making. It was problematic but that was ages ago I read it and I've never owned so I don't know how they are. My auzentech is used for everything from gaming, movies and music making.
One of many reviews i read was quite in depth and said the card is a good as a entry level music production card and a all round strong performer. Thanks for the heads up ST, and may the mercy of his shadow fall upon you.
There is a PCI-e version of the card you linked available so make sure you get the connection you require. http://www.scan.co.uk/products/asus...ty-71-hi-def-pci-express-sound-card-dolby-dts and it's £10 cheaper. (I'm assuming you, as I did, saw "new version" in the description of the one you linked so automaticlly went for that one first)
Because its Saturday im bored, i had a look around to see what cards other retailers stock. Seems overclockers.co.uk has some this week only offers on Asus cards. http://www.overclockers.co.uk/productlist.php?catid=11&groupid=701&sortby=priceAsc EDIT: And i would also say don't get creative their driver support is awful. OMG are Asus and Creative the only sound card manufactures now days
Thanks guys, before i went to order it from scan i had one last look and found it on overclockers, even with postage its cheaper than scan. AlphaAngel i had seen but my only PCI-E slot is used up already.
You only have to checkout the Creative forums to see how bad they are, things like a beta driver released in January meant to fix No sound issue - after system Reboot - intermitent sound loss Settings not saved (speaker settings, mode settings) Distorted sound when recording in certain frequencies Yet seven months later and people are still waiting on a working driver.
What are you listening to the audio on? If you're using PC speakers, the best upgrade is to use an amp (w/digital out or HDMI - no new sound card required) and use proper speakers. It'll stretch your budget but be a MUCH better upgrade...
m-audio, esi, infrasonic, and many other sound card manufacturers .... but those ones are less gamer oriented.
I have a Yamaha RX-V361 av amp which currently is connected via optical to my pc. Its an older amp but its still pretty good. My front speakers are my older Aiwa hifi speakers but i do have 5.1 as well http://usa.yamaha.com/products/audio-visual/hifi-components/stereo-receivers/rx-v361_black__u/?mode=model
Oh, the dreaded D2X, huh. Does any one know if they actually ever got that card to work? I was given one by an incredibly frustrated friend of mine who paid $300 for it on launch. He's not the most PC savvy but I did know that they are quite horrible to get working. Any way, he was perfectly right. Only fit use for it was to either start your PC and not do anything but listen to music or take it out and look at it (it is rather nice looking). All I ever used to get when trying to play a game was a crash of the game and then a looping sample that would play until you either rebooted or physically removed it from Device Manager and then put it back. And that was using Yellowbeard (of Corsair fame)'s drivers. Awful, just awful.
I have no issues with my Creative card under Windows 7, but under Windows 8 it always switches the output's to the front panel connectors even though they are not connected. The Asus card I used a while ago, worked fine also on Windows 7 until I wanted to play Call Of Duty 2, 4 or 5 and then it would lock the pc up, which is why I switched back to Creative. The driver support from Creative is really poor though.
Ive ordered the asus D2 card from overclockers, its cheaper this week. I'll use 5.1 for movies and videos, if a game will play in 5.1 then i'll try it. Thanks again.
The ratio is about 50%. 50% have problems versus no problems. Even if you don't have problems... the creative drivers are massively bloated and slow boot times. XFI pops and crackles were explained away by creative saying it's because the soundcard is so fast a computer sometimes can't supply data quick enough.
Hilarious excuse ! I had a XFI Xtreme gamer (Dell card) and every now and then it would make a noise like some one dragging nails down broken glass. At which point it would remove itself from DM and I would have to reboot.. These sound issues began when M$ decided in their infinite wisdom to change how sound works in Windows. From Vista onward they decided it was time to ditch hardware accelerated sound cards (which Creative were bloody good at making) and have it all done by software, meaning that for the most part you would gain bugger all from having a top end sound card over onboard. And that's what's made it very difficult to write decent drivers for. TBH I was thinking of getting a stand alone sound card but from what I'm seeing here I don't think I'll bother. It'll just be something else I have to try and punt on Ebay at a loss.
That's why I bought a sound card with ASIO / wasapi drivers. No more windows kernel mixer, but this is a stereo only card.
